The following is a talk I gave June 1 in Toronto which sprang from my ongoing interest in The Hunger Games as a transmedia campaign. I wrote an earlier blog post, ‘Why The Hunger Games is Not Harry Potter, and Why You Should Care,’ in response to finishing the novels, which were far more disturbing than I had expected. Further mulling on Geoffrey Long’s How to Ride a Lion: A Call for a Higher Transmedia Criticism and Jeff Gomez & Fabian Niciezo’s “6 Reasons Why ‘the Avengers’ is Crushing it at the Box Office” resulted in this case study on ‘Transmedia Engagement: Participatory Culture to Activism.’ Your thoughts are welcome!

Excellent presentation, I wish I would have been there to hear your elaborations. The Hunger Games is an interesting project because the target audience are teens. At least the trilogy is classified as teen fiction/young adult novels. The content, however, opens the Hunger Games for a completely different audience. It is not an easy read and the political, social and moral implications are doubtlessly aimed at a more mature audience as well. It would certainly be also interesting to look at the books/films from an adaptation studies point of view.
You might be interested in Veronica Roth’s: Divergent/Insurgent. Very similar principle in the structure of the narrative. Dystopian setting, female protagonist and humankind divided into five faction. Lionsgate has bought the film rights for the first novel of a trilogy. I am quite positive that these books will turn into the “New Hunger Games.”
Thanks for posting your slides.
Cheers,
Birgit

thanks Birgit, I will definitely pick up the Roth books and your points on audience are dead on. That’s where the long game for marketing the film & speaking to the different audiences the novels’ address beg for more discussion. I know my 13 year old has a completely different reading experience from mine – what younger readers take-away from the novels is an important question for me.